1st Feb - We got onto our first ever Kiwi Experience bus to head to Paihia (Bay of Islands), which is slightly north of Auckland. We'd heard some really good reviews about the Kiwi bus, so we couldn't wait to get onboard and wait for the fun to begin! When we boarded the bus, we met our first driver. She was awesome - she depicted exactly what the Kiwi experience was all about = having fun and living wild and free! Wicked.

Our driver gave us our bus ticket, kiwi guide book and told us all we need to know for our journey. It was all so brilliantly organised; they handed out a clipboard for you to request hostel accommodation which they book for you, a clipboard for activities in that area and a clipboard to book your bus back to Auckland. Apparently this is what happens on every bus.. so far so good! :) We were very impressed!

When we got to Paihia, we checked into our hostel. We stayed in a dorm with 6 other girls. We got chatting to the 2 girls in the bunk beds opposite us called Charlotte and Rosie from and a Swedish girl called Johanna. We had such a nice dorm! We had a good little nap and headed out to get some alcohol for the nights festivities. We all headed to Stuart's, the Essex boy's, room and played some drinking games from 6pm where Stuart found it appropriate to make jokes about the size of my feet. Oh yeah, thanks for coming! We played a game called 'on the bus' which I sucked at, and then headed to the hostel BBQ. It was so yummy! We had sausages, burgers, bread, salad and coleslaw. Later we continued drinking and headed to the bar a couple of doors down. It was nothing special, but my did we have one hell of a night!

2nd Feb - we headed into town for some brunch after our lie in and spent most of the day using wifi. Not an awful lot happened until we went out again in the evening and did it all over again. It was such a good night!

3rd Feb - this was our last day in the Bay of Islands. The weather was awful once again; it was pouring with rain so there wasn't much choice of what we could do which was a shame. We got some wifi and later went back to the hostel where we had a dip in the BOILING hot tub and watched Robin Hood with a guy we met called Paul. We were pretty shattered so we just went out for a quiet drink in a local pub which was an old ship moored up on the bank. It felt like we were drinking on a pirates ship! We met some local Maori's there which we got chatting to. They are such funny characters!!